Fishing Outside Of Time
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The speaker watches a boy's fishing reel beside a Bluegill and pond whirlpools as a science salesman jets overhead. The speaker asks whether fast silver men will know death at the edge of childhood, while the boy keeps his feet on the ground and his mind going down.
The speaker places the boy's attention beside flight and speed of light. The question concerns what the passing men might know; it does not describe the boy deliberately resisting them.
A 'fisherman boy' reels in 'a Bluegill' while 'the nouveau-riche industrial science salesman / Jets across the long exhaust marked sky', and the poem asks whether such 'fast silver men' will 'ever come to know about death', ending with the boy's mind 'too busy going down / With his feet on the ground'.
The poem favors the boy's grounded attention over speed and commerce. 'lilly' and 'dosen't' are typed spellings.